Indonesian officials have reached the scattered crash site of the government-operated ATR 42-500 that went down in a ruggedly mountainous area of the island nation on Saturday afternoon local time. Wreckage was spotted in numerous locations from the top of a ridge to the bottom of a ravine and one body was recovered. There were 10 people on board, seven crew members and three employees of the government’s ministry of marine affairs and fisheries who were doing a survey of natural resources. A search team was to be deployed on Monday, but weather and the terrain are making it difficult to get to the search area.
The aircraft was on its way from Yogyakarta to Makassar. Early reports said the plane hit a mountain top in a national park adjacent to the destination city. Makassar Airport is a regional hub that serves more than a dozen airlines and handles about 10 million passengers a year.
VFR operations in an area of cumulogranite rarely work out. If they were IFR, that’s another story.